The dictionary says that a kiss is "a salute made by
touching with the lips pressed closely together and suddenly parting them." From
this it is quite obvious that, although a dictionary may know something about
words, it knows nothing about kissing.

If we are to get the real meaning of the word kiss, instead
of going to the old fogies who compile dictionaries, we should go to the poets
who still have the hot blood of youth coursing in their veins. For, instance,
Coleridge called a kiss, "nectar breathing." Shakespeare says that a kiss is -a
"seal of love. Martial, that old Roman poet who hid ample opportunity to do
research work on the subject, says that a kiss was "the fragrance of balsam
extracted- from aromatic trees; the rise odor yielded by the teeming saffron;
the perfume of fruits mellowing in their winter buds; the flowery meadows in the
summer; amber warmed by the hand of a girl; a bouquet of flowers that attracts
the bees."

Yes, a kiss is all of these ... and more.

Others have said that a kiss was: the balm of love; the
first and last of joys; love's language; the seal of bliss; love's tribute; the
melting sip; the nectar of Venus; the language of love.

Yes, a kiss is all of these . . . and more.

For a kiss can never be absolutely defined. Because each
kiss is different from the one before and the one after. just as no two people
are alike, so are no two kisses alike. For it is people who make kisses. Real,
live people pulsating with life and love and extreme happiness.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF KISSES

Of course, there are different kinds of kisses. For
instance, there is the kiss that the devout person implants on the ring of the
Pope. There is the maternal kiss of a mother on her child. There is the friendly
kiss of two people who are meeting or are separating. There is the kiss that a
king exacts from his conquered subjects. But although all of these are called
kisses, they are not the kisses* that we are going to concern ourselves with in
this book. Our kisses are going to be the only kind of kisses worth considering
. the kisses of love. The kiss perhaps, that Robert-Bums had in mind when he
wrote:

Honeyed seal of soft affections,

Tenderest pledge of future bliss,

Dearest tie of young connections,

Love's first snowdrop, virgin kiss.

The amazing thing
about the kiss is that although mankind has been kissing ever since Adam first
turned over on his side and saw Eve lying next to him, there has been
practically nothing written on the subject. Every year, hundreds of books are
published telling you how to reduce, how to gain, how to get a job, how to cook,
how to write and even how to live. But, on the art of kissing, very little has
been written. - One reason for this lack of proper instruction is accounted for
by the

Victorian. sense of morals which has persisted through the
ages. To the blue-nosed Puritans of the past anything that concerned love was
dirty, pornographical. John Bunyan's writings show what these, Puritans thought
of' the kiss. He wrote in big infamous "The Pilgrim's Progress," "the common
salutations of women I abhor. It is odious to me in whomsoever I see it. When I
have seen good men salute those women that they have visited, or that have
visited them, I have made my objections against it; and when they have answered
that it was but a piece of civility, I have told them that it was not a comely
sight. Some, indeed, have urged the holy kiss; but then, I have asked them why
they make their balks; why they did salute the most handsome and let the
ill-favored ones go." Perhaps old Bunyan thought that way because be was one of
the "ill-favored" who went unkissed and were let "go."

But, nowadays, people have taken a broader outlook on life.
Our plays are becoming more civilized and less stiff. Our arts are no more
censored by laws. Our books are being written about subjects that no
self-respecting author would ever have dared to put into a book. Birth-control,
divorce and the science of marriage are common subjects for books. Even the
strange vices of mankind are brought out into the open and discussed and not
allowed to fester in the dark chambers of censorship. Yes, books like Van de
Velde's "Ideal Marriage" and Stope's "Married Love" Ire openly sold in
bookstores. But, nowhere, do we find a book which instructs people in the art of
kissing, an art which is an absolute essential to a happy -life, as we shall
discuss in the oncoming pages of this book. Is it because we are not absolutely
freed from the shackles of prudishness? In certain parts of this country, men
have been arrested for kissing their wives on the street! Is this civilization?

So it is, that this book is being written. It is going to
be a manual of the kiss. In it we are going to discuss the most approved methods
of kissing, the ad' vantages. of certain kinds and, with the disadvantages of
others, the mental and physical reactions of kissers, historical episodes of
kissing together with examples from the literature of the world in which kisses
were the subject. So, gird up your loins, pucker up your lips and let's to the
kissing arena!